‘World’s smallest dinosaur’ fossil found at brickworks in Bexhill

A new species of dinosaur uncovered at a brickworks in Bexhill, East Sussex, is believed to be the smallest ever discovered.

The bird-like fossil measures between 13 and 16 inches in length and was identified from a single 2.8-inch vertebra found during excavations of the Ashdown Brickworks.

The world’s smallest dinosaur has been discovered at a former brickworks near Bexhill

Darren Naish and Steve Sweetman, palaeontologists at the University of Portsmouth, identified the fossil as coming from the Mesozoic era, which makes it around 250 million years old.

The pair also confirmed that the dinosaur was fully grown when it died, as the main body of the neck vertebra is fully fused to the arch-shaped part that sits above it, indicating a skeletally mature specimen.

According to initial analysis, the new species, which has been nicknamed the Ashdown maniraption, was either carnivorous or omnivorous.

Dr Sweetman said: ‘This is such an exciting find as it represents the smallest dinosaur we have yet discovered in the European fossil record.

‘Originally it was identified as the vertebra of a snake but once I saw it I knew straight away it was far more likely to be the vertebra of a tiny theropod.’

Scientists working in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, recently revealed that Tyrannosaurus Rex was an intelligent creature that hunted in packs, dismissing previous theories that they were lone hunters.